1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sensory computing and e-commerce and, more particularly, to integrating touch, taste, and/or scent with a visual interface of an automated system for an enhanced user experience.
2. Description of the Related Art
Consumers are increasingly taking advantage of e-commerce marketing channels over store front commerce channels due to many inherent advantages. Unlike store front channels with limited and costly inventory space, e-commerce channels can have a virtually unlimited inventory, which even includes items that are purchased by an e-retailer from a wholesaler after a consumer purchase. E-commerce channels can result in a more efficient and competitive market for consumers than other channels, which permits consumers to receive better deals on items than can typically be had through storefront channels. Another major advantage of e-commerce channels relates to purchasing convenience. Many consumers likes the convenience of being able to rapidly purchase items from multiple distributors and having the items shipped to destinations of choice without having to fight crowds, without having to package items themselves, and without having to search multiple storefronts to find one that currently has stocked an in-demand item or set of items.
A relatively new, yet increasingly implemented e-commerce shopping mechanism relates to utilizing a set of known consumer characteristics, habits, and preferences to suggest products of interest to the consumers. One variant of this technique is a direct marketing mechanism incorporated within many several Web sites, such as GOOGLE and YAHOO, that present targeted product advertisements to consumers based upon consumer search requests. Another technique variant is guided shopping. In guided shopping, consumers are prompted with questions related to shopping behavior, interests, occupation, and consumer attributes. This information can be refined using generalized consumer metrics, marketing trends, consumer history, and other data driven factors. At present, guided shopping techniques can automatically generate a set of suggestions that have a relatively high purchasing success rate and that result in a relatively high consumer satisfaction rating.
At present, e-commerce marketing channels remain inferior to storefront channels for many items that are targeted to a sense of touch, taste, or smell. A consumer may purchase a perfume using an online supplier, it that is a perfume which the consumer is intimately familiar with and often purchases. It is unlikely, however, that a consumer will purchase a presently unknown perfume from the online supplier, since the purchase would be made relatively blindly. Instead, a consumer would more likely be interested in a new perfume after being exposed to it within a department store, assuming the scent is pleasant to the consumer. Similar problems exist for products with important attributes dependent upon tactile aspects (i.e., relating to a sense of touch) and/or to products that are edible (i.e., relating to a sense of taste). No known conventional system combines an e-retailing visual and/or audio interface of an automated system with sensory output mechanisms for touch, scent, and/or tastes to permit potential consumers to experience these aspects of a purchasable item.